In the fields of construction, transportation, building trades and the like its is often desirable to grip or secure one or more segments of wire rope or other flexible cord. For example, wire rope or other flexible cord is often secured at one end by means of a turn back loop formed from a single piece of wire rope or other flexible cord is drawn at one end through an eyelet or chain plate and brought back to form two segments, which are then gripped with a clamp or wire rope clip. In other applications, two or more pieces of wire rope or other flexible cord are joined or spliced together by one or more clamps placed near the ends of the wire rope or other flexible cord.
Previously existing devices used to secure segments of wire rope in the longitudinal axis include the common saddle-type wire rope clip and later variants of the saddle gripping surface. Examples include the Fist Grip (R) wire rope clip manufactured by the Crosby Group, Inc., and the device described and claimed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,802,680 to Postelwait.
These prior art devices generally employ a saddle configuration gripping surface. Using the saddle configuration, these previous devices grip the wire rope by compressing the segments of wire rope between the saddle at one end, and at the opposing end, either a U-bolt or another saddle portion. In these devices, gripping force is applied by rotation of threaded nuts arranged generally perpendicular to the saddle surface and the longitudinal axis of the wire rope, which forcibly draws or pinches the two segments of wire rope together and places them in gripping contact with the saddle surface and U-bolt, or between the two opposing saddle surfaces.
These prior clamps are generally simple in design, often comprising few parts. Therefore, in cases where components of these prior wire rope clamps fail, for example, stripping of threads or bolts due to the large torques applied to the nuts that cause compression of the wire rope with a high retention force, components such as saddles, U-bolts, or nuts may be interchanged or replaced.
However, certain drawbacks are encountered with the use of saddle-type wire rope clips. First, the shape of the gripping surface, which is either the interior surface of two opposing saddles or the interior surface of a saddle and a U-bolt, generally compresses the two cable segments together at the center, thereby undesirably deforming both the cable surface and the longitudinal axis of the cable segments.
Additionally, in the case of the common single-saddle wire rope clip, the gripping surface of the U-bolt is small in comparison with the gripping surface of the saddle, thereby creating a differential in gripping pressure which tends to alter the longitudinal axis of the wire rope segment gripped by the interior portion of the U-bolt. This differential in gripping pressure of ten times causes the wire rope segment gripped by the U-bolt gripping surface to be pinched in relation to the wire rope gripped by the surface of the saddle. The resulting deformed axis of at least one segment of wire rope thus clamped may create difficulties in maintaining the proper position and axial alignment of the wire rope clamped thereby.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to have a clamp for gripping wire rope or flexible cord with a high retention force, provide for significant control over axial alignment of the gripped wire rope or other flexible cord, avoid pinching wire rope segments in relation to one another, and still have the clamp be simple in design and operation, rugged, and easily repaired.